Search the Community

I golfed with a gentleman today who claimed that golf shafts "wear out" and need to be replaced every 4 years (assuming 50 rounds per year). Can anyone (equipment junkies, club builders, club fitters, etc.) please chime in with your thoughts on this? Is this a valid claim?

Toronto, Ontario Wednesday, January 28, 2015 Modern Golf Vancouver is Expanding! Modern Golf is excited to announce the expansion of its Vancouver location in Spring 2015! Due to an encouraging first year in the West Coast, Modern Golf is moving to Bridgeport Road in Richmond to provide an even better MG experience for its BC customers. Furthermore, Modern Golf is delighted to announce that Andy Johnson has joined the team and will be located at the Vancouver store as of February 2015. Andy is a native of Australia and now resides in Vancouver, British Columbia. He played full time on the Australasian and Canadian Tours from 2004 through 2011, having also competed in various Nationwide and European Tour events. Establishing himself as a player, he was very fortunate to come through world-­‐class programs like the Australian Institute of Sport and Provincial training programs. These programs provide the training that has produced Australia's greatest tour players. Since his playing days, Andy spent 3 years as a Custom Fitting Technician for TaylorMade Golf. Andy's custom fitting experience was conducted at the TaylorMade Tuned Performance Centre in Vancouver. With Andy's proficiency as both a playing professional and custom club fitter, Andy will be a great fit for Modern Golf and an asset to its current team. The new location for Modern Golf Vancouver will be opening its doors spring 2015. The official opening date will be finalized in a future press release. The new facility will be 4,000 square feet, featuring 3 Trackman fitting bays, a Quintic Putter Studio, and a repair shop. Like the flagship store, Modern Golf Vancouver will have the largest demo shaft matrix in North America. Players of all abilities, situated on the west coast of Canada, will be offered the same high quality brand agnostic approach to club-­‐fitting Modern Golf currently offers its customers at their Headquarters in Toronto. All fittings will be conducted using Trackman, the industry leader in measuring ball flight and club delivery. Every customer fit will be provided with a blueprint of their current clubs, Trackman data, prescription and quote for new clubs. All clubs built will be SST PUREd, frequency matched and built to exact specifications set by the fitter. Modern Golf Vancouver will provide: driver, woods, hybrids, irons, putter, and full bag fittings. They will also provide club repairs and refinishing. Whether you are looking for a new set of custom fit clubs or would like your current clubs retro-­‐fitted, Modern Golf can help YOU play better golf. You can find out more information on Modern Golf from the website www.MODERNGOLF.ca. -------------------------------------------- So my TaylorMade fitter and Modern fitter will unite 2 minutes from my home under one roof!

Written by: Dan Mann Let's get right to the point. Would you pay $325 to $400 for a fitting? Should you pay this much for a fitting? How good does this fitter have to be before you go out of your way to get there? With the readily available list of box stores out there seemingly offering fitting options with purchase for free who needs a high-end fitter? If I'm going to drop this kind of coin I'll surmise what I would expect from this fitting center. This fitter should be completely agnostic to brand & will try any and every option possible regardless of product price, to ensure at the end of the day that you get the absolute best fit possible. They will not be required to tee up each shot for me, but I will expect fairly drastic results come the end. To cap it all off pretentiousness needs to be left at the door, show some enthusiasm and display a true love for what you're doing. I was excited when I found out Toronto, Canada's raved about gem of a fitting center; Modern Golf, was coming out west to the greater Vancouver area. They are renowned for their glossy Apple store like facilities and world class fitting techniques. But would it be the same? At the recent open house I had the pleasure of meeting the man who's made the Toronto location such a success - Ian Fraser. This guy just oozes fitting knowledge, so how were they going to match that out west? Let me introduce you to the best glasses in golf, Dean Walters. Dean is young, enthusiastic and extremely knowledgeable. He comes with a personality that instills confidence in the process you're going through. Having a comfortable personality is also extremely important; I know especially where my wife is concerned. She gets spoken down to a lot from people who treat her as the tag along golf wife. Little do they know… MBP: So Dean, why should people care about Modern other than the cool pics and flashy store layouts? DEAN: With our highly trained professionals we are here to help you find the right set of clubs to compliment your golf game. As you can see in some of these cool pics, we have thousands of different combinations to test, providing you with every option and to actually see and hit those clubs. It takes the guesswork of what might and might not work for you. You're able to see your numbers and improvements. We have a state of the art 1,000 square foot PGA Tour caliber club building workshop with some of the industry's most skilled craftsmen. We build the clubs onsite so that we can ensure your golf clubs are built to the precise specs that were prescribed by our fitters. Our fitters have honed their skills through years of tour level experience. We have precise instruments and the highest grade components. Our stores have state of the art technology such as TrackMan, SST PURE and Quintic Ball Roll. People should care about Modern Golf because our staff truly cares about every customer that walks into our shop. We're there to provide an excellent service and make the customer feel welcome, give them more knowledge and to help them get the most out of their game. MBP: What's different about your process than the guy fitting people out of his garage down the street? DEAN: We pride ourselves on helping our customer get the most out of their golf equipment, and creating a great customer experience unlike any other shop out there. Our shop has the latest industry leading technology it allows us to refine and customize every aspect of the fitting process and relates that to your swing needs. We use a combination of camera and motion sensor technology with our computer software that will identify the club components that best match your swing for each individual club. We have highly trained professionals that provide the highest level of service so that you get personal attention to ensure you are getting the best clubs suited for you. Our approach and professionalism is what separates us from the field. Modern Golf is motivated on the improvement of your golf game and not by our sales numbers; we guarantee that you will be satisfied with every aspect of our fitting process and the performance of your new golf equipment. We pride ourselves on making the fitting process a fun and enjoyable experience that you will learn from. It most certainly is a no-pressure, stress-free experience. Dean seems pretty confident and enthusiastic about who Modern is and what they're doing, but at the end of the day how does this attitude translate onto the person being fitted? Before we start, here are a few early questions I threw at Nidine. MBP: What intimidation if any did you have going into it? Mrs. MBP: You know I watch Dan all the time with his golf buddies and industry friends talk about changing one piece on a club and never got it. I also couldn't care less because I didn't understand how changing one thing would affect the game so much. Plus, I'm treated like just "the wife" who doesn't know anything about golf, when some industry guys or friends meet me (until Dan explains how untrue it really is), or just "the photographer". I'm usually in the background, which I don't mind most of the time. So for a company like Modern Golf to really embrace having me fitted was pleasantly surprising. I guess I'm sort of skipping around the actual question but I think it was important to give you the back-story. Yes, of course when it was mentioned that I would be fitted, there was a little anxiety. However, after meeting with Dean during the open house, his friendly, easygoing but professional demeanor put me at ease. MBP: For the cost of a fitting like that what expectations did you have coming going into it? Mrs. MBP: In all honesty, I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew what the idea was but I had no expectations because I didn't understand what it meant to get a fitting. THE CLUB BLUEPRINTING MBP: So Dean Walters, why spec the user's current clubs? Dean: There are different reasons for why we spec a customer's clubs before the fitting is started. How a customer's clubs are configured can drastically change performance on the golf course. In our club fittings we look at the problem areas of the customer's game and can relate that to the specs we have just measured. For example, when we look at club length we measure the exact length of each club, having the wrong length of clubs can lead to inconsistency in contact. Club loft can be crucial to a customer's swing too, because every person's swing is different and with the different dynamic loft that a person can produce, loft can affect the trajectory and the spin rate of the ball leading to variations of travel and carry. By measuring the exact lofts we have found inconsistency in off the rack sets and often these lofts tend to change over time with regards to usage. If the lofts are incorrect for that individual, they might find difficulty in ball flight, whether it be getting the ball flight up or lowering the ball flight. We then go into club lie angle. Proper lie angle will differ between each customer depending on dynamics such as height, swing characteristics and arm length. We frequency the clubs to see whether the clubs have been built to spec and are frequency matched or whether there might be a club that's a little off which would lead to inconsistency in the set. Lastly, we check swing weight, which is essentially how heavy the club feels. Again, there are inconsistencies we see throughout sets. With our builds we are meticulous with the swing weight, making your set feels exactly the same throughout. Rest assured the process is thorough. To spec out each of our bags Dean spent a good 30 minutes on various machines, scrutinizing every last detail: loft, lie, grips size, shaft frequencies etc . It was quite a shock to see the large variances in my shaft frequencies, especially since my sticks came straight from Tmag's custom department. I'd like to point out a key feature included in your fitting price. Your body and swing will most likely change over time, so your specs probably won't stay the same forever. Modern Golf will adjust your clubs free of charge for life. Now this visit also gave me the opportunity to play around with a new technology idea to get you guys the best content possible. Our Modern Golf fitting will be accompanied by time-lapse videos of each step. Please let me know if these work or don't work for you and I'm open to suggestion on improving them. Highly recommend switching to HD 720p or 1080p for best quality viewing. THE FITTING MBP: Dean, what key factors are you looking for in an iron fitting (I remember smash, backspin and descent angle came up a lot). Just tell me all. Dean: Every fitting will be different to cater to the individual because every swing is unique. The first step in our consultation is to get to know the golfer and find out individual goals and what they expect to achieve through our custom fitting process. From this information we can narrow down what we would like to achieve during the fitting and that will provide the fitter with the information and factors to look at. A few examples would be to look at Smash factor, spin rates, angle of attack (“AOA”), launch angles, height, land angle and dynamic loft. We also take a look at how the player might load the club and also look at their swing tempo. All of these have a significant effect of what club type and shaft type to choose. There are certain numbers that we look for with each club to optimize the ball flight. By looking at dynamic loft (loft at impact) we are able to suggest what loft the player might be better suited to as well as looking at launch angles, especially for irons. A customer might add loft to the club at impact therefore leading to possibly bumping the lofts of their irons, or vice versa, where adding loft to the club might help a player who shuts the loft of the club face down at impact. If spin rates are lower than they need to be you may be able to try a different club head, which might increase spin rate, or a different shaft, which is the main driver behind the golf club. We also look at land angle to get the optimal numbers out of a driver fitting. So there definitely are different factors being looked at through different fittings, since there are so many different parts to every individuals swing. MBP: So Nidine, were your expectations fulfilled coming out of it and what were they? Mrs. MBP: I guess you could say my expectations were exceeded, all right, way beyond what I could've ever thought. Outstanding Service: From the minute we walked in the door, we were asked if we needed a beverage, guided to the monitor room, and made to feel comfortable. They made sure to explain exactly what we were going to do, which made me feel very little pressure and very much at ease. As mentioned I didn't know quite what to expect until Dean explained. Using their Trackman they would monitor different things with my swing. Dean brought a few different shafts and heads and now it was time to try to better my game. First off I hit some balls with my own clubs. To reduce the pressure, Dean would simply erase shots I didn't like due to miss hits or poor swings. That helped immensely, to drop the nerves and just relax, so I was able to hit some solid shots. He was able to pick up on how I felt about a certain club or shaft almost instantly. I was quite impressed! Once he noticed I got some confidence and some benefit with a shaft he would change the club head to see if I could benefit any more. MBP: With that said wife, did you learn anything about your game? Mrs. MBP: That I still think of myself as a newbie and I really shouldn't. I also learned my husband is screwed because I have expensive taste, even in golf clubs. But really, I learned that tweaking even a little piece on your club can either enhance or diminish confidence and can release or restrict your true potential. My smash factor is important to keep as close as possible to 1.5, and your club composition does factor in to this result. I'm all about the tradition of the game but after this fitting, I'm also now a believer that without technology in sports we would fall behind. It's like that commercial where the guy is like "my mallet" is perfect for him and you know he could have so much more potential if he gave into change a little and adopted some of this new technology. Makes sense to me now, after the fitting. I always thought, I can adapt to anything you give me but it's just not true. Not with golf clubs. MBP: Did you see big results? Mrs. MBP: YES! By the end of the fitting I had gained a carry distance of 10 yards in my irons and 17 yards in my driver! My smash factor also went up 0.06 with my irons and 0.03 with my driver to 1.44! The great thing about this fitting is the explanation of where you should be and the visible results. Sometimes people just get told the results but I like that Dean was able to send me the results and comparisons of the clubs I tried and my own clubs. Check out my fitting results below: MBP: OK now you Dean: what are the biggest wins from Nidine's fitting? Dean: The biggest wins from Nidine's fitting would be the carry that she gained and also the tighter dispersion in both the driver and her irons. Nidine's spin rate with her irons was a little low leading to a lower land angle. By increasing her spin we gained yards in both carry and height, which should help her hold greens a little easier. By putting Nidine into a head and shaft combination that essentially created more ball speed, we were able to increase carry by 10 yards. With Nidine's driver we found that she wasn't getting the ball up in the air. She was launching the ball on average at 14.6 degrees with her driver and height of her shot being at 47.3 ft, so by putting her into the Jetspeed head and accra rt 50 shaft we were able to increase launch angle by almost 4 degrees and lowered her spin rate by a few hundred RPM. By increasing her launch angle and lowering her RPM we got the height of her ball flight up to 70.1 ft but with the lower spin. The higher launch angle, higher, but still penetrating ball flight and lower spin allowed Nidine to realize substantial gain in carry and total distance, but more importantly got her more consistent and closer to the middle of the fairway. In the end, her driver carry distance went from 144.8 yards to 162.3, and total ditance from 168.6 to 180.5 yards, which is phenomenal. A little more practice and we might see her on the LPGA tour soon MBP: OK beautiful - no not you Dean - I'm talking to the Mrs. Who would you recommend get this done? Mrs. MBP: I think it's valuable for a lot of people. 1. The Regular: If you've been playing the game for a while and haven't considered playing another set of irons because you're used to the ones you have, why not see if you are at full potential? Technology has changed the game of golf, so and why not see if those clubs are keeping up with the times and your game improvement. And if you're in your perfect set already, they will let you know! 2. The Noob I think this would also be fantastic for someone who would like to try golf or is very new still. The great thing is you have options! Sure the stores you go to have a large selection, but you only get what the standard shaft is in the club heads. What I've come to realize is it's the combination of the right size grip, shaft and club head for your swing that can really give a new/novice golfer the confidence they need. MBP: So we're almost done Nidine, anything else you want to add? Mrs. MBP: If you are invested in this sport already or are just getting started; do it right. Get fitted by someone who makes you feel comfortable, whether you're a player or not, and someone who is willing to tell you the truth rather than just trying to sell you on product. The beauty of purchasing the fitting with Modern Golf is if you do purchase clubs from them, they'll tweak your club spec adjustments (loft and lie angles) for free FOREVER! $325 (minus the putter fitting) is completely worth it if you are really committed to bettering your game long term. That's less than a buck a day for a year! I remember we had switched from the Speedblade heads and into the Ping heads but the same Accra shaft. After a couple swings, Dean intuitively stopped me from taking any more shots with the Ping because he could sense I wasn't comfortable with the club head. That just blew me away. I'm kinda shy and don't like to complain, and didn't want to have to say I didn't like a club head option he gave me. Turns out I didn't have to, but I have a feeling even if I did say something he would agree and be fine with recommending something else. At no point did I ever feel pressured to buy anything. I think that is the best thing about the entire process; you don't need to be convinced by anyone but yourself. You look at your own numbers and decide for yourself either to stay with what you have, more make a change or two. Or four. The one challenge I have after this amazing experience: How do I convince my, uh, thrifty husband to spend $200 on each Epon club head? Maybe I'll just have to settle with the 20 yard more carry on my driver and get the Jetspeed driver head and Oban shaft. Thank you to Dean Walters at Modern Golf for an eye-opening experience. That's a lot to read, so where are we at? Mrs. MBP seems pretty ecstatic about the whole experience, but has she simply been wooed by all the fancy technology, pretty displays and Dean's slick glasses? Without actually buying and gaming the clubs recommended, it's virtually impossible to tell if any of the recommendations will actually make a difference on the course. Modern Golf knows this, and the cost of the fitting makes it highly unlikely you'd go through the process “just for kicks” without planning to actually buy something. But beyond all the pizzaz and glossinees, Modern Golf provides an opportunity – for a price – that any semi-serious golfer and gear-head lusts after: the opportunity to walk into a golf shop and be fitted like the pros. You'll receive the same kind of personal, one-on-one experience Ricky, Dustin or Luke get, and you'll be able to test virtually any and all major equipment brands and components there are. Combine that with the high-end, first-class environment and Modern Golf gives you a winning combination. So when are hers arriving you ask? Ha! Tell this lady to consider a few less purses and maybe we can investigate some Epons down the road. For More info visit: http://moderngolf.ca/ Oh and one last question Nidine: What were these doing on the camera roll? ManBearPig B-Roll footage:

The Ultimate OEM Experience Coming this January Canada's premier club fitting experience will be offering The Ultimate OEM (original equipment manufacturer) Fitting Experience. The new fitting experience provides golfers the best options offered by OEM brands for their game. During the experience golfers will work with one of our highly qualified club fitters to find the best components offered by each OEM. We use Trackman throughout the fitting to make sure we pick options that are the best for each player's game. Once the fitting is complete, we will order the clubs directly from each OEM brand. When the clubs arrive our club builders will carefully inspect each club to make sure they are built to our recommended specifications. Frequently Asked Questions What types of fittings are available through The Ultimate OEM Experience? The Ultimate OEM Experience is a full bag fitting that includes: Driver, Woods, Hybrids, Irons, and a Wedge recommendation. How long is the fitting? During the experience each client will spend approximately 2 hours working with one of our highly qualified club fitters. What is the cost of The Ultimate OEM Experience? The fitting will cost $200. What OEM brands are available? Callaway Cobra Mizuno Nike Ping Taylormade Titleist What does the golfer take away? Each golfer will receive a Prescription, Trackman Report, and Quote that will be uploaded to their virtual customer file located on Modern Golf's website. What shaft options are available? During the experience the fitter will use head and shaft combinations offered by each OEM brand. Where is the fitting available? The OEM Experience will be offered at Modern Golf Headquarters in Toronto. What type of golf balls will be used for the fitting? We use Premium Golf Balls for all of our fitting types. Is there a Warranty on clubs purchased through The Ultimate OEM Experience? All clubs are warranted through the OEM manufacturer and not Modern Golf. http://moderngolf.ca/